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Flora’s Acerola powder is full of vitamin C and phytonutrients to ward off sickness.

Elderberry Crystals are great for immune system support and may help you prevent sickness and reduce symptoms when already sick.

Who doesn’t want to look their best, be healthier and have more energy all while eating the tastiest, most nutritious food?

That’s why we are offering $30 OFF monthly nutritional plans to get you started on your path to a new you. You will learn how to make quick, easy, delicious and more nutritious meals and get individual attention to keep you motivated. You will get answers to your nutrition, weight loss and health questions with simple solutions. We want you to succeed and are here to help.

Want to give the active person in your life the BEST gift ever? We teamed up with Wholistic Running who helps athletes of all levels. We are offering a FREE month of coaching when you sign up for a 3-month online coaching package. Or get $100 OFF OFF 6-month online coaching packages. These all inclusive packages include:

With Thanksgiving so quickly approaching we at Wholicious Living wanted to leave you with a couple of our favorite fall recipes that will easily steal the show.

Lindsey’s Simple Roasted Vegetables

2-3 medium sweet potatoes, diced

2-3 medium beets, diced

1 sweet onion, diced

1 lb brussels sprouts, halved

1 medium head of cauliflower, cut into florets

1 lb fresh baby bella mushrooms, diced

3-5 cloves garlic, chopped

1 T coconut oil

We usually make two pans of this recipe because it goes quick and everyone always has seconds on this.

Preheat your oven to 360 and do your chopping while it’s heating. Then line a baking sheet (or 2) with parchment paper. Spread the cut up veggies evenly in both pans except for the mushrooms. Sprinkle with freshly ground sea salt and pepper to taste.

Add the coconut oil sparingly. Since it’s usually solid at room temperature, it works best to put small chunks in 4-5 places across the pan. Bake veggies for about 1 hour, but be sure and stir every 20 minutes. This will help to spread the coconut oil evenly over the vegetables and prevent anything from burning. At about 20 minutes remaining add the mushrooms.

The fun thing about this recipe is that you can add whatever vegetables you like best. These are some of our favorite. Not much spice is needed as all of these veggies take on a lot of flavor on their own when roasted.

Chef Damian’s Special Lentils

1 cup yellow lentils

3 cups water or veggie stock

1/2-1 T cumin (depends on how much spice you like)

1/2 T ground ginger

1 Dash cinnamon to taste

Sea salt and pepper to taste

Cook on a stovetop, using 3 cups of liquid (water, stock or combo) to 1 cup of dry lentils. Be sure to use a large enough saucepan as the lentils will double or triple in size. Bring to a boil, cover tightly, reduce heat and simmer until they are tender. For whole lentils, cook time is typically 15-20 minutes.

When finished cooking, add spices. Be sure NOT to add sea salt until after lentils are finished cooking as the lentils will remain hard if you do so. You can leave these a bit chunky or blend until smooth and creamy. If you like them on the creamy side you can also add a touch of soy or almond milk.

Even if you don’t consider yourself an athlete, we believe there is an inner athlete in all of us. We all may have to dig a little deeper at times but that athlete is there. So get outside and do something you love! Explore. And do it on a daily basis. Life is too short to not to.

We are advocates of a Whole Food Plant Based (WFPB) diet for many reasons, but one is because it increases your quality of life from the inside out. We believe this lifestyle is best for optimal health and overall wellness and can help you and your loved ones avoid major preventable diseases. The cool thing is that it’s good for the animals and environment too.

Make sure you eat enough.

Many athletes and people in general fail on a WFPB diet because they fail to eat enough total calories. Whole plant foods in general are low in calories (except for things like nuts, seeds, avocados, coconut), but that’s the beauty of it all. We absolutely love food! We would rather be able to fill our stomachs full of lots of good food rather than only a little. People transitioning from a SAD (Standard American Diet) to a WFPB diet may not realize that they need to eat more food to get enough calories for their sport. Food=Fuel.

While we don’t recommend counting calories, we do recommend being mindful of how much (or little) you are eating, where the food came from and if it’s nutritious or not. Make sure to take time while you’re eating to not only fully chew your food, but to also allow yourself to be thankful you have a wonderful meal in front of you. This will not only help you slow down and actually enjoy what you’re eating, but will help your brain access how hungry you truly are.

These types of foods also give your body natural energy, reduce cravings, keep your immune system running well and help your body to recover faster by reducing inflammation. Do you see a pattern here? Pretty much any food that grows from the ground or a plant is considered quality. You can’t go wrong with whole foods. And that means eliminating anything refined and processed.

3. Eat often and eat the rainbow (and we’re not talking skittles here).

We recommend eating every 3-4 hours to help keep your blood sugar stable and your metabolism running high. This will also curb cravings and help you to not gorge yourself at dinner. Eating consistently throughout the day will leave you a happier, healthier person. We recommend eating bigger meals early on to make sure you’re giving your body the fuel it needs. Also aim to eat a variety of colors each day of fruit and vegetables. This ensures that you’re getting an array of disease fighting phytonutrients and antioxidants to keep your immune system running strong. Mix it up and have some fun. And don’t forget about fresh herbs and spices!

One thing that Damian and I do with some of our favorite meals it to constantly change the recipe and see what new ingredients we can add to a dish. Or just try a new fruit or vegetable each week. This helps keep food from getting boring, but also helps you get those 4-5 servings of fruits and vegetables each day. Continue reading →

Did you know that by incorporating more raw, green vegetables like kale into your diet daily, athletes can improve endurance, energy levels, and postpone fatigue during exercise? Did you also know that they contain powerful anti-cancer properties? Am I catching your attention yet?Continue reading →

By now I’m sure that most of you have heard of “doping with beets” to help extend endurance and improve performance, especially when it comes to running and cycling. As an athlete, we’re always looking for ways to optimize training and performance as long as it’s practical and actually works. We all know there’s no real substitute for putting time and work into training. However, incorporating beets into your diet is a simple, naturally effective way to increase the length of your workouts or find that extra edge in endurance or speed. I want to share with you the latest science behind beets and how to incorporate them into your diet to help increase your athletic performance.

Beetroot is a highly nutrient dense vegetable that is high in folate, manganese, potassium and copper. Vitamins A, B and C; antioxidants beta-carotene and beta-cyanine; fiber, magnesium, phosphorous, and iron are also present.

What gives beetroot its pigment are known as betalains and there are two types. Betacyanins, which are vibrant red/violet in color, and betaxanthins, which are yellow in color. Both forms of betalains contain nitrogen and they work as both antioxidants and anti-inflammatories.

Beets are also naturally high in inorganic nitrates (NO3-), which the body uses to make both nitrite (NO2-) and nitric oxide (NO). Nitrite is known to protect the blood vessels from injury, while nitric oxide expands blood vessels and therefore increases the flow of oxygen to the cells. This, in turn, increases both the power available to the muscles and the length of time that the muscles can exercise without tiring. NO is made naturally within our bodies but we can dramatically increase its availability by eating nitrate rich food. Studies have shown that drinking beet juice decreased oxygen needs by 19 percent and increased exercise endurance time by 17 percent. A more recent study shows that participants were able to maintain a higher power output for the same amount of oxygen consumed. This led to a 2.7% improved performance compared to the placebo (beetroot juice treated to remove the nitrate).

About 1-2 cups of raw beetroot juice provides the amount of nitrate needed for the average person to increase their blood nitrite, which occurs about 2-3 hours after drinking it. For more elite athletes, it’s likely that you’ll need to use beetroot juice for several days in a row to get a meaningful boost in blood nitrite and hence performance. (I usually use beets daily for about two weeks prior to an important race). However, just going out, buying your own beets and putting them in the food processor or blender doesn’t guarantee you’ll get the benefit. The nitrate content of vegetables (including beetroot) varies significantly according to the soil it’s grown in, the time of year, the fertilizer used, and how soon after being picked the beets are juiced. I highly recommend growing your own or buying organic from a local farmer who can tell you more specifics about their crops. There is also bottled beetroot juice available online for those of you who want a known nitrate content. (Personally, I still use whole beets as I didn’t notice a difference with the bottled beet juice).

Another thing to keep in mind is that the nitrates in beets are converted into nitrites by friendly bacteria in our saliva. This conversion is not instantaneous, and the use of mouthwash or toothpaste too soon after drinking beet juice may wash the nitrates out of your saliva. (As a dental hygienist, I recommend brushing before you eat). Drinking beet juice slowly may increase the time nitrates are in contact with these bacteria, increasing the conversion to nitrites.

Like all supplements, individuals will respond differently to the performance enhancing benefits of beet juice. There is always a chance that no performance benefit will be seen, even at the highest dose given. But they could also provide the race winning boost, so go ahead and try adding beets to your diet and see what happens.

If you’re not eating this super food daily, you’d better start. Blueberries may be small, but they’re certainly not lacking when it comes to being loaded with nutrients and antioxidants. Antioxidants help to reduce inflammation and oxidative damage to cells resulting from free radicals produced during periods of strenuous activity or stress. Whether you’re an athlete or not, we all have stress in our lives so eating foods to help combat that is important. Blueberries have been shown to increase memory, reduce the risk of heart attack, prevent cancer and also promote healthy blood pressure. Researchers believe the high concentrations of anthocyanin, a very powerful antioxidant that gives blueberries their color, is responsible for the protective benefits.

Sweet potatoes are one of the most optimal carbohydrates an athlete, or any person for that matter, can consume. I’m not just talking runners here. They’re highly beneficial for anyone who lives a sedentary lifestyle to any athlete looking for more strength, endurance or speed. Sweet potatoes offer a superior complex carbohydrate source that is stored, and then efficiently broken down for future energy needs. Complex carbohydrates serve as an important component of a healthy, well-balanced diet and contribute to weight loss. Because carbohydrates are the body’s preferred source of energy, I recommend complex carbohydrates (non-stripped, whole) ideally make up around at least 60% of daily total calories to fuel you for whatever you do.

I usually eat one sweet potato per day or at least four times a week. Here’s why I think you should eat them, too:

Sweet potatoes are high in fiber (around 4g or 15% of your daily value). People often ignore the importance of fiber consumption. Fiber not only helps to satisfy you, it also helps you to feel fuller for longer and helps keep your digestion healthy.

They’re packed with 35% of your daily value of Vitamin C, which helps for immune support and absorption of iron. They contain the highest amount of Vitamin A (beta-carotene) than any other root vegetable, have all the B Vitamins except B12, are high in magnesium and potassium, which will aid in diminishing cramps and preventing muscle spasms, contain all minerals except selenium and are a complete source of protein, helping to protect cells and muscles to recover and regenerate.

They’ll help you lose weight. As stated above, they’re low in calories and high in fiber. Both play a huge role in weight loss. They also have a high water content to hydrate your body and also keep you fuller for longer and prevent overeating.

Sweet potatoes are cheap and very easy to cook. If you store them in a cool, dry place, they’ll last for 6-8 weeks. I throw a couple in the oven to bake and have quick and easy snacks before or after my workouts or leftovers for dinner. They’re very versatile. You can bake, boil, mash, grill, roast, shred for use in baking recipes, blend in smoothies or cut into wedges to make fries (I highly recommend baking them with no oil).

They’re delicious, wholicious and taste amazing alone or in any recipe.

Baked Cajun Sweet Potato Fries

Ingredients

3-4 medium sweet potatoes, scrubbed clean (organic when possible). I personally like a mixture of Japanese sweet potato and regular sweet potato. The Japanese variety are mild yellow in color and not as sweet.

2 Tbsp water in spray bottle

1/2 tsp sea salt

Optional:

1.5 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Leave the skin on and cut sweet potatoes into thin, even match sticks with a very sharp knife.

Transfer to two parchment paper lined baking sheets and spray with water. Then sprinkle with seasonings.

Arrange in a single layer to ensure they crisp up. Then sprinkle with seasonings.

Bake for 15 minutes and flip/stir to cook on the other side. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes more, or until brown and crispy. You’ll know they’re done when the edges are dark brown and crispy.

Remove from oven and either serve as is, or drizzle with a bit of maple syrup or honey to offset spiciness.

Power up for anything with this super seed! While Chia seeds have gained popularity over the last decade, they are far from new. The Aztecs and Mayans used these seeds dating back to 3500 B.C. The word chia means “strength” and was thought to be more valuable than gold. It was also the inherent dietary staple of a tribe of super-runners in the Copper Canyons of Mexico known as the Tarahumara Indians, which you may know about from the book “Born to Run”.

What exactly is a chia seed? It’s a small black or white seed (no significant nutritional difference between the two) that’s not much bigger than a poppy seed. While it may be small, it certainly packs a punch when it comes to its nutritional content. It is one of the most concentrated sources of omega-3. In fact, one serving (2T), has five times the amount of omega-3 than a 1/4 c serving of walnuts. It contains as much calcium as a 1/2 c of milk, has 2 times the amount of iron and magnesium than one cup of spinach, has as much potassium as 1/3 of a banana and more than twice the fiber of a cup of oatmeal. It’s also loaded with protein, antioxidants and tons of other vitamins and minerals. I include them in all pre and post workout recovery drinks.